Friday, February 26, 2010

Screw You, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: Poppa's Playlist 1

As previously mentioned, Isaac has a swing which plays a short collection of tinny children's songs. Isaac loves them, which is awesome, as it relieves me early of the nagging fear that Isaac will be that weird kid who doesn't ever really get into music. He'll jam out blissfully to this 5 minutes of tunes for literally an hour on repeat. Great for him, terrible for dad.

Fortunately, after keeping my first iPod for 5 years, long after the wheel stopped working properly and long after I started getting condescending comments for how my iPod looked, I took the plunge on a new Nano. Of the many things in a person's life that change drastically after he or she becomes a parent, your taste in music is not commonly mentioned. It is a real change however, not so much in genres or subgenres than in specific song content. For instance, I have been into these lately:


Cotton Jones- Only Minutes Young

On the Rio Ranger EP, this song is a beautiful little mess of psych-folk, a song about being born and love and all the intrinsic good stuff that is happening in that moment. The live version above is simpler, but the idea is the same. Oh, and this EP is put out by my good friends Brian and Jeremy, so you should buy it if you haven't yet. (/shameless plug)

Gentleman Auction House - A Good Son

Driving? Anthemic? "You were punchin' like a kick drum?" Yes, this will do nicely.


Bruce Springsteen-My Hometown

I've been really wrapped up in inter-generational relationships, home finance, and what home is for a couple of months now, and that ties directly to Isaac. In the strictest sense, Isaac's hometown as of right now is NYC, which is the American city. But in a very real way, the whole of Michigan (to which this song could be applied) is closer to his hometown than he may ever fully appreciate.


Rascal Flatts - My Wish

Many of my friends have a strict, almost dogmatic insistence that modern country radio is not worthwhile. They are wrong. To any person, hipster or otherwise, who thinks that this song is over the top (which it is), and that you're too cool for it, I will only say this: If you ever find yourself holding your sleeping newborn, play this song. If it doesn't perfectly encompass what you're feeling, and if you don't cry a little, you are dead inside. DEAD.

4 comments:

  1. HA! The Wish made me tear up and my kids are 6 and 4. And now for your unsolicited kids/family music recommendations for newborn...Elizabeth Mitchell, Caspar Babypants, Gustafer Yellowgold, Renee and Jeremy, Putumayo has a great lullaby cd called Dreamland. If you are interested, I have much more where this came from. One of my passions as a youth librarian and mother.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Nichole! I'm sure I'll be hitting you up for more!

    ReplyDelete
  3. check out my iphone/ipad app that teaches how to play this song on piano …
    Its all for a good cause!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVD5uia6RKs
    http://www.appsforhunger.com

    ReplyDelete